Iraqi forces push into key Islamic State-held city of Ramadi

By Omar al-Jawoshy

Baghdad: Iraqi forces engaged Islamic State fighters within the city centre of Ramadi for the first time on Tuesday, reaching the edge of the inner government district in an attempt to seize the critical western provincial capital after months of buildup, officials said.

"We went into the centre of Ramadi from different axes, and we started clearing residential areas," said General Sabah al-Numani, a spokesman for the army counter-terrorism unit in charge of the offensive. He predicted that "the city will be cleared within the coming 72 hours".

Six hundred to 1000 IS fighters were said to have been in Ramadi when the overall offensive began two weeks ago, but several hundred of them have been killed in fighting and airstrikes since then, according to Iraqi and Western officials.

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Those remaining did not appear to be giving up easily. Iraqi forces, including a mix of soldiers and policemen along with a contingent of Sunni tribal fighters, faced heavy fire and were assaulted by car bombs, Iraqi officials said. Fighters for IS destroyed three bridges across the Euphrates River to slow the security forces' advance, according to General Ahmed al-Belawi, the leader of a battalion of Sunni tribal fighters.

Iraqi soldiers plant the national flag over a government building in Ramadi.Credit:AP

The force crossed on Tuesday using portable bridges supplied by US forces, officials said.

Weapons and explosives confiscated by Iraqi security forces from Islamic State militants on display at an Iraqi army base, with IS flags deliberately hung upside down as a mark of disrespect.Credit:AP

Ramadi fell to the Islamic State in May, in a sudden collapse after a long battle that exposed multiple weaknesses in the government's ability to fight the militants, including stark military shortfalls and disorganisation, and an unwillingness by the government to arm or send reinforcements to help Sunni tribesmen fighting the militants.

The rapid advances on Monday and Tuesday held out hope that after months of preparation, the government had finally marshalled a large enough force to prevail there and begin a wider operation to fight IS in other areas of Anbar province.

Iraqi forces cross a bridge over the Euphrates supplied by the US Army Corps of Engineers on the approach to Ramadi. Islamic State destroyed the existing bridges across the river as a defensive measure.Credit:AP

"I think the fall of Ramadi is inevitable," Colonel Steven Warren, a US military spokesman in Iraq, said on Tuesday. But he added: "That said, it's going to be a tough fight."

Other crucial battles, like the ones for Tikrit and Baiji, dragged on for weeks or months, and it remains to be seen whether IS will quickly melt away.

Iraqi soldiers advance in northern Ramadi, 115 kilometres west of Baghdad in the Sunni heartland of Anbar province.Credit:AP

Al-Jazeera reported that 14 soldiers and 17 tribal fighters were killed by a suicide car bomber in al-Bu Diab, north-west of the city centre, and that at least 12 militants had been killed. MSNBC released a video that it said showed an IS counterattack on the eastern edge of the city, and it quoted a tribal fighter saying that at least seven IS militants had been killed. Those casualty numbers could not be independently confirmed.

Iraqi forces cross the Euphrates in the advance to Ramadi.Credit:AP

Iraqi airplanes dropped leaflets on Sunday urging residents of Ramadi to evacuate within 72 hours, warning of an impending operation and suggesting two evacuation routes. Colonel Warren estimated that thousands or even tens of thousands of civilians were still in the city; hundreds of thousands have fled.

Colonel Warren said that coalition forces had recovered what he said were IS leaflets in the nearby city of Fallujah urging its fighters - if they lose control of the city - to impersonate Iraqi security forces and commit atrocities.

The authenticity of the leaflets could not be independently confirmed, and experts on IS were debating their validity after the coalition publicised them on Tuesday.

SITE, a research group that monitors jihadist communications, said on Tuesday that some IS supporters were seeking to play down the importance of the Ramadi battle, circulating photographs that it said showed a calm city.

An Iraqi official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss military operations, added that the Iraqi forces, entering from the south-east of Ramadi, were within 3 kilometres of the city centre, where the local government compound is. The official added that the suburb of Bakir had been "completely devastated" by airstrikes and shelling.

Even if the Iraqi military finally does reclaim Ramadi, regional experts warn, the Sunni city will not take kindly to being overrun by the Shiite-dominated Iraqi military. The Pentagon has been training Sunni tribal fighters to make up a holding force for the city.